So... hum.. yeah, this is my introduction. Hi.

I'm a guy who enjoys books, mostly. But also, I enjoy the object 'book'. As well as reading a book. Not writing on them, I'm not really sure why people write in the margins of a book, especially if they are well written.
I enjoy the letter-form and the way it is organized in the page, I enjoy how it flows down like a river, or how it flushes from and to its sides.
I like a masterfully crafted book with a leather hard-cover, head-banded and round bound because it means someone though its content was worth it. Someone honoured that content with a proper binding, to preserve it, to cherish it.
Being a young guy and computer educated, I've also read books since I was a little kid. I didn't look up too much for the book itself. I drew on covers, folded corners, torn pages and left books out on the rain; as long as they were readable, it was good for me.
One day though, I was sulking after losing bad at some computer game, and I started wading my index finger through the titles of books I owned. I stopped at a book by Jules Verne, 'La Jangada'. I had read it at about 12, when all I really wanted was adventures, and I saw all those documentaries on National Geographic about lost civilizations. I took it from the shelf and opened it somewhere around the middle. One of the first sentences in the page was a dialogue by a character with a similar name to mine, Manoel. The page was half torn, but both halves were still joined by the end of the page. I then remembered how amazing it would be to float in a giant raft down the Amazon river and fight the indigenous peoples with spear in hand, jumping over crocodiles and shooting rare birds for the feathers.
I sat down with the book and went back to the first page, eagerly devouring its written content, forgetful of words, finding myself in the middle of the Amazon forest in some distant time in the past. And then, I got to a missing page. I was disappointed. Very disappointed, but not so much as to be exasperated. But sad.
From that moment, every single book I bought, I've learned to cherish and keep safe. Because a book is a portal to a world, a mirror to peek at, a water veil to look through. And it must be preserved as such.
Today, I found this site. At my left side are some of the books in my possession in my new house. Most are reference and work books, design and programming stuff, typography manuals, anatomical references. They are all on a shelf for close access from my desk. On the other side of the room, my full collection of the 'Spirou et Fantasio' albums, a special edition of the Lord of the Rings and plenty of books by Garcia Marques, Vargas Llosa, Saramago and Dostoyevsky, as well as Fight Club, Choke, and Snuff. But in front of me, my personal collection of leather bound books by Jules Verne. One of them is off the shelf. I have it right to my computer mouse. It's 'La Jangada'.

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So after this long introductory article of sorts, I'd like to do a proper introduction to my person. My name's Manuel and I'm a 21-year old from Portugal. I study design and multimedia arts, but I'm much better in theory classes. Why? Because I enjoy writing, but I'm sure you figured that out. Some time ago, I joined chuck's page on facebook, but I didn't really bother to come check the website. Today I did. Something ticked, and to me, it seemed so important to join a writing community. It was something of the moment. And I really hope I did a good move. I'm not going to tell you, but my dream is to become a writer. Huh, well I guess I just did.